60 seconds with...Burkhard Oppenberg, Chief Information Officer, Gothaer

We sat down with Burkhard Oppenberg from Gothaer ahead of the event in February, to talk about innovation within the insurance industry and any potential barriers.

What topics are you looking forward to hearing about and discussing at The Digital Insurance Summit?

At the Digital Insurance Summit, I am particularly looking forward to discussing the insurance industry's approaches to the challenges in innovation and modernization. The rapid development of customer needs and technologies makes it essential for insurers to continuously renew their core processes and offerings. Dealing with heterogeneous landscapes and legacy systems poses a significant challenge. I find the integration of generative AI and the further adoption of automation and digitalization in key functions of the industry particularly exciting. Strong innovation is crucial to keep pace with the rapidly evolving market and customer needs, and I look forward to engaging in interesting discussions in this context.

When it comes to innovation within the insurance industry what do you think is the biggest barrier?

The biggest barrier to innovation in the insurance industry is dealing with existing legacy in different dimensions, such as technology, functionality, process, and organization. Customer needs are constantly evolving in all areas, and the adoption of embedded insurance requires very efficient processes with a high degree of automation. In addition to this, the high complexity of products, significant effort and investment for modernizing and consolidating heterogeneous application landscapes, demographic challenges and insufficient collaboration between business and IT also need to be addressed. Regulatory and security requirements, such as the current DORA and cyber resilience, are also gaining increased importance due to the gradually intensifying threat situation. All these factors can slow down innovation. The main challenge lies in combining the strength of innovation with appropriate management of legacy landscapes to create sustainable value.

And what do you think is or could be the biggest enabler of innovation?

With rapid development, legacy is something that we will always have. Therefore, the ability deal with legacy in a continuous, efficient, and focused manner and making this a solid business capability is essential for enabling innovation. Reducing complexity at interfaces for customers and sales agents and dealing with the legacy "behind the scenes", not just in the core systems, are of particular importance and require patience and perseverance. To achieve this, it is important that the business not only understands IT developments, but also actively engages by driving and thinking along with them and has aligned goals. Also nowadays agility is more important than ever in order to keep pace with change. Properly handling legacy in all areas, rethinking processes while considering regulations, agility, and fostering collaboration between business and IT are, therefore, the biggest enablers for establishing and anchoring sustainable innovation capability.

Which industry do you think insurance could learn the most from, and why?

The insurance industry can learn from many sectors. In finance, FinTechs and InsureTechs demonstrate how processes can be digitally and efficiently implemented on a Greenfield. Leading companies in the industrial sector, for example Bosch, show how the collaboration between business and IT can work effectively. In the automotive sector, innovative companies like Tesla have revolutionized the industry, while legacy-rich companies like VW first had to revise their strategy and make extensive changes to keep pace. The insurance industry can learn in this regard that over-reliance on legacy poses a significant risk, that legacy cannot be ignored, and that focussed innovation, while considering legacy at the same time, is absolutely necessary in order to remain marketrelevant.

Hear from Burkhard at Digital Insurance Summit on February 8th, 2024 as he joins the CIO Fireside Chat 'Grappling with Legacy IT: How can you execute digital transformations across your business to reduce long-term costs and deliver short-term business impact?'. Download the full agenda here.